Text:
Panel 1 Man and woman in office clothes in a break room.
Man: So, if you were alone in a forest, would you rather run into a strange man… or a bear?
Panel 2 Woman: Oh, hmm… I think the bear.
Man (angry): How can you say that?
(Bear looking quizzically through the window)
Panel 3 Man (angry): You’re demonizing men! It’s misandry!
Panel 4 Woman: Good point. Why would I ever hear men’s reactions?
Man: Exactly! …where did the honey go?
Panel 5 Woman and bear sharing tea
Woman: At least if you maul me, pepper won’t say I made it up or I’m misinterpreting.
Bear: I hear you
Stanzi made this as a skit basically: https://youtube.com/shorts/9MdYx9vFnYU
NGL, this comment under the video is 🔥!
It’s less dangerous to be lost in the woods with no help at all than it is to be in a club with a man upset you’d choose the bear.
Bears generally avoid people. They’re naturally afraid of humans, which makes them pretty safe. Things are different when bears become familiar and comfortable around people, or discover that humans are a source of food. Then they get close to people which makes them much more of a threat.
By contrast, strange men are not naturally afraid of people, and most have learned that humans are a source of food. That makes strange men far more dangerous. Pick the bear every time.
also I want to see a bear
I’ve seen them. Black, grizzly and polar.
They’re gorgeous animals, but … I prefer seeing them from a distance, thank you very much. 😜
I’ve only seen in zoos :(
I’ve been reading manga on a site that allows comments after each chapter and holy shit @ the comments any time a female character is in a role even slightly villainous, or even if there’s a possibility she might be interested in anyone other than the male protagonist. Comments calling for rape, torture, murder… It even happens in romance genre mangas, where the stakes should only be as high as “will they get together and navigate their issues?”
It’s no wonder women choose the bear because with some men, they are one misunderstanding away from the man who supposedly loves them wondering if he “needs” to get extremely violent with them. And somehow they convince themselves that “love” is involved.
Still choosing the bear! But I think the point of this comic might be lost in the exaggeration…
Well you suck enough that you came into a space that was explicitly listed as “women-only” and “please only women comment or reply” and expressed your butthurt view. This clearly demonstrates the degree of respect you show women’s choices; why should we not look askance at your other choices in life?
Also, given that this very objection has been addressed AT LEAST THREE TIMES IN THIS FATHERMUCKING SET OF THREADS ALONE it appears that you don’t actually care enough about the opinions of women to actually READ WHAT WE HAVE TO SAY, indicating—again—that your disdain for women kind of puts you into the “sucks” crowd.
Have a nice day. Don’t post here again.
Hi! so just because I disagree with you slightly doesn’t mean I am a man.
i wasn’t disagreeing with the ideas of the comic. I was saying the message was lost in exaggeration <3
no disdain for women here. love you!
What exaggeration, though. I’ve been kicked in the kidney by a guy because I didn’t agree with him.
“I’ve never been sexually assaulted by a bear” tends to shut this BS down pretty fast in my experience.
Tragic but valid point. Plus more women are killed by men than bears…
Sorry for all the trolling everyone, and massive thanks to admins who’ve been protecting us you’re amazing 👏
At least I get to watch them fly into my blocklist like mosquitos into a bug zapper lol
Haha true
I really am very sorry for posting this at some level. I thought it was a good take on the thought experiment (further enhanced by some pretty nifty artwork). But really, just mentioning the meme is enough to get all the CHUDs out of the sewers and into the comments and I should have known better.
No victim blaming in our group ZDL! It’s not your fault at all , it’s not 1% your fault.
I’d choose the bear, cus they avoid humans, and with certain types of bears, you can make yourself look bigger than them to scare them away (don’t think you can do that with a man)
He specifically says “strange” man.
I don’t know that I’d pick that over the wild animals of the forest even as a guy.
In the middle of a forest, the only other humans I’d feel 100% safe running into are ones I already know.
It is truly amazing to me how few people understand even the elementary aspects of risk management.
A known danger is easier to manage than an unknown one.
Bears are dangerous, but largely predictable. They usually don’t go after humans at all (and indeed usually go the other direction). And if they seem angry, there’s simple things you can do (it rhymes with “back away slowly” because identical rhymes are still rhymes) that will defuse the situation almost immediately.
Men are for the most part decent human beings. Most men you meet will not be monsters. The problem is that there’s really no way to distinguish the monsters from the decent men until it’s way too late. And extricating yourself from an interaction with a strange man in the forest is not as straightforward as it is for a bear. Backing away slowly might work, or it might trigger that silicon chip inside their brain and slip it to “overload” and make them get angry that you don’t trust them. And the penalty for making a bad choice is serious bodily harm as the good outcome. There are worse ones after that.
So just from straightforward risk assessment it’s better to meet a bear in the woods than a strange man. Because a bear is more predictable and easier to manage.
Yup.
I grew up with sisters, one of which I was able to discuss this type of stuff with.
It doesn’t have to be all men. Because it can be any man.
Some of the conversations I had with her even made me realize that I’m probaly a bit too trusting, and complacent in my being a man.
A stranger doesn’t necesserily need to be physically stronger than me to force their will on me, or otherwise cause me harm. Trusting a malicious person just once, can be lethal.
Thanks for popping in mental edge! Youve made some really interesting points. We’re women only, so please don’t comment again. 🥰
Men’s responses to the “man or bear” question perfectly illustrate the point of the question but they just. Don’t. Understand. That.
It’s not necessarily that a woman is answering the question “man or bear?”, it’s that everyone in the conversation when she does so can answer “do you respect me or what I have to say at all?” and the answer from men is often a resounding “no!” A bear would just accept someone’s answer as her answer and leave it at that.
My thing with the man and bear has always come down to motivations. If a bear rapes me, it’s because it’s horny. If a bear mauls me, it’s because it’s scared or defending its territory. If a bear eats me, it’s because it’s hungry. Dominance and cruelty will not come into it. The bear will not keep me alive in its basement.
The other thing is that bears don’t lie. You might not understand their language, but they absolutely will not act like they’re friendly and safe only to lure you or groom you. If it wants to kill you, it’ll just do it without any fucked-up mind games.
I haven’t posted here before because I’m never sure how to feel about gendered spaces, but this particular issue is one of those ones where I can’t help but identify as a woman. I think it’s probably all the trauma. :D
Those are really good points. I particularly like what you said about lying, a bear won’t lie, deceive and gaslight people afterwards to discredit you.
God, having recently gone through this, you have no idea how reassuring it is to read stuff like this; it helps reaffirm that it wasn’t my fault and that it’s relatively common for predators to be good at convincing people of their side.
(Also, she taught me that even women suck. Really fucking cool. Possibly the only time where I’ve questioned someone’s gender due to the fact that being around her started to feel like I was around a wolf in sheep’s clothing)
They really are, they work like a magician convincing everyone that up is down and black is white. It’s so subtle and effective
The real beliefs I think a lot of the people responding secretly hold:
This bear in particular is maybe not much better than a dude. He’s gettin a little handsy.
It’s fun watching how many people aren’t reading the rules before they comment.
Rule #1 isn’t all that unclear.
Edit: Oh this is not 196, ignore. But everyone please keep in mind this community does not allow participation by men.
Also, I will still ban misogyny.
this community does not allow participation by men.
Also, I will still ban misogyny.
…
Well these sorts of posts tend to invite lots of men to “not all men” a lot.
Really cute art style here, I love the pooh-bear thing at the end. It’s the man that asks for the honey, heh.
I feel like this thought experiment is a shiri’s scissor. My take on this is that the worst humans are more dangerous than a wild bear. Here’s the quantitative version: what percentile of dangerousness in man would you pick over the bear? For me, I would switch from man to bear at the 90% percentile – I think the 10% worst men are a riskier proposition than the bear.
Point is you don’t know whether the man is a good one or not when you bump into him.
Right, this is why the quantitative version is more revealing.
I think the quantitative version is too fantastical for me to think about. We would never have enough information to know the percentile of the individual man in front of us.
